Baroque philosopher Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom consists of three hundred maxims spanning a wide range of topics relating to all aspects of life and human behavior. Gracian was a Spanish Jesuit Priest whose sermons and writings were disapproved of by his superiors. Admired by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche for the depth and subtlety of his observations, Gracian's collection of pithy insights deserves place alongside similar classic manuals of self-improvement from antiquity like the Enchiridion of Epictetus and Seneca's Letters.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft's passionate work supporting women's rights, is considered to be among the very first examples of feminist philosophy. When it appeared in 1792, Wollstonecraft's treatise sets out a range of what were at the time radical beliefs; she thought all women should have a formal education, so that they may raise their children to be keener in mind as well as prove able conversationalists with their husbands. Wollestonecraft by no means unreservedly supports marriage: she states that women should not be thought of merely as items to be bandied about and wed, but as human beings capable of great intellect. Wollstonecraft also lambastes the prevailing social picture of women; that they have a number of fixed, narrow and often domestic duties. She also singles out how women are expected to behave, criticizing in particular the notion that the highest aspiration of a woman is to be a sentimental heroine in a popular romance novel.

Over a period of three years, Henry David Thoreau made three trips to the largely unexplored woods of Maine. He scaled peaks, paddled a canoe, and dined on hemlock tea and moose lips. Taking notes, he acutely observed the rich flora and fauna, as well as the few people he met dotting the landscape, like lumberers, boat-men, and the Abnaki Indians. - The Maine Woods is an American classic, a voyage into nature and the heart of early America.

Widely heard and read throughout the middle ages, romance literature has persisted for centuries and has lately re-emerged in the form of speculative fiction, inviting readers to step out of the actual world and experience the intriguing pleasure of possibility. Medieval Romance is the first study to focus on the deep philosophical underpinnings of the genre's fictional worlds. James F. Knapp and Peggy A. Knapp uniquely utilize Leibniz's "possible worlds" theory, Kant's aesthetic reflections, and Gadamer's writings on the apprehension of language over time, to bring the romance genre into critical dialogue with fundamental questions of philosophical aesthetics, modal logic, and the hermeneutics of literary transmission. The authors' compelling and illuminating analysis of six instances of medieval secular writing, including that of Marie de France, the Gawain-poet, and Chaucer demonstrates how the extravagantly imagined worlds of romance invite reflection about the nature of the real. These stories, which have delighted readers for hundreds of years, do so because the impossible fictions of one era prefigure desired realities for later generations.

This book looks into different forms of social exclusion in different societies or contexts. It is important to note that in some cases, social exclusion is fueled by the deprivation of economic resources, political and social rights. In contrast, social constructs or cultural norms constitute significant factors in other cases. At the subject (macro) level, this book opens up an avenue where researchers from different subjects can look into how central issues of their subject can be understood through the lenses of social exclusion. For example, historical perspectives of social exclusion, sociological perspectives of social exclusion, religiosity and social exclusion, gender perspectives of social exclusion, educational perspectives of social exclusion, etc. At the thematic (micro) level, this book looks into how specific themes like racism, the corona virus pandemic, albinism, media, sexuality and gender intersect with social exclusion. In doing all these, the book also provides a much-needed multidisciplinary and methodological understanding of issues of social exclusion.

The foremost collection of essays from one of Britain's most important 20th century Marxist writers Considered by many to be the most innovative British Marxist writer of the twentieth century, Christopher Caudwell was killed in the Spanish Civil War at the age of 29. Although already a published writer of aeronautic texts and crime fiction, he was practically unknown to the public until reviews appeared of Illusion and Reality: A Study of the Sources of Poetry, which was published just after his death. A strikingly original study of poetry's role, it explained in clear language how the organizing of emotion in society plays a part in social change and development. Caudwell had a powerful interest in how things worked - aeronautics, physics, human psychology, language, and society. In the anti-fascist struggles of the 1930s he saw that capitalism was a system that could not work properly and distorted the thinking of the age. Self-educated from the age of 15, he wrote with a directness that is alien to most cultural theory. Culture as Politics introduces Caudwell's work through his most accessible and relevant writing. Material will be drawn from Illusion and Reality, Studies in a Dying Culture and his essay, "Heredity and Development."

In the first study to examine F. W. J. Schelling's political thought, Velimir Stojkovski not only unearths a neglected dimension of the influential thinker's philosophy but further shows what it can teach us about our ethical and political responsibilities today. Unlike Hegel or Fichte, Schelling never wrote a political treatise. Yet by reconstructing the portions of such works as The New Deductions of Natural Right that deal explicitly with the political and by thematically rethinking parts of his writings that have a clear repercussion on politics - in particular those on nature, freedom and religion - this book reveals the centrality of politics to his oeuvre. Revisiting his corpus in this way, Stojkovski uncovers a number of ways we can learn from Schelling and his reception. He examines how Schelling's views on nature can clarify our moral and political obligations to the non-human world and further demonstrates how the separation of ontology as first philosophy from the ethico-political has resulted in a fragmented view of the status of the political subject and thus the body politic. Forcefully renouncing this fragmentation, Stojkovski explores how the same divide has contributed to the ongoing political turmoil in Europe and America. Combining an exploration of German Idealism with contemporary concerns, this is an essential study that will introduce readers to a new Schelling: a political thinker for the 21st century.

Nietzsche's famous attack upon established Christianity and religion is brought to the reader in this superb hardcover edition of The Antichrist, introduced and translated by H.L. Mencken. The incendiary tone throughout The Antichrist separates it from most other well-regarded philosophical texts; even in comparison to Nietzsche's earlier works, the tone of indignation and conviction behind each argument made is evident. There is little lofty ponderousness; the book presents its arguments and points at a blistering pace, placing itself among the most accessible and comprehensive works of philosophy. The Antichrist comprises a total of sixty-two short chapters, each with distinct philosophical arguments or angle upon the targets of Christianity, organised religion, and those who masquerade as faithful but are in actuality anything but. Pointedly opposed to notions of Christian morality and virtue, Nietzsche vehemently sets out a case for the faith's redundancy and lack of necessity in human life.